I finally have a moment to write out George's birth story. John's updates were good but I have a little different perspective.
I woke up at 2am on Thursday morning with some cramping. This had been happening for a week and had always gone away so I didn't get my hopes up too much. I laid in bed for about 3 hours and the cramps turned into mild contractions. I finally got out of bed at 5am because I knew that the news would be on and I would have something other than weird late-night informercials to watch. I was browsing the net in the living run when I stood up and realized that I might have peed myself or that my water had possibly broken. There was no huge "gush" like some people describe when their water breaks so I was not positive. I spent the next hour moving around and changing positions to see if anything else would happen. I keep leaking and decided around 6:30 to wake John up so we could get ready to go the hospital. We took showers and got ready to go. Kristina was staying with us because she was on spring break and here to share in my boredom of waiting. We told her we were going and we would call her later.
When we got to the hospital they confirmed that my water had broken and they admitted us around 8am. I wanted a drug-free birth and the nurses were supportive of this. We started walking the halls and laboring on the yoga ball. John was really good helping me breathe through contractions and massaging my back. Unfortunately the contractions were mostly all in my back and getting more painful as they progressed. I don't remember what time it was, probably sometime before noon that I broke down and asked for something for pain. The nurses gave me the option of starting a heplock in my wrist so that they could use the site if I needed anything intravenously later or a simple shot. I let them start the heplock and they gave me a dose of Fentanyl. It helped me relax between contractions but it did not make the contractions any less intense. At 1pm I couldn't take it anymore and asked for an epidural. I was pretty disappointed that I gave in but by 2pm when the anaesthesiologist arrived there was no break between the contractions and I was so grateful for relief. I was able to rest for a couple hours after that. I kept thinking of all the possible side effects that come with an epidural but thankfully did not experience any of them. This is the point in John's first post when I asked him to update the blog, before then there was no thinking of blogging.
With the epidural my contractions started slowing down and I was given Pitocin to keep them consistent. Again this was something I wanted to avoid but was necessary at that point. I went from 5cm to complete in a couple of hours. My doctor got to the hospital at 5pm. I was so grateful that she was able to be there. She had be so great throughout my pregnancy and I trusted her to know what was best. I started pushing at 5 and pushed for almost 3 hours. I grossly underestimated how much work that part would be. Little George was head down but not facing the preferred direction making it much harder to get him out. At 7:53pm George Christian Lewis was born! The moment they put him on my chest made everything worth it. It was definitely one of the happiest moments of my life. I can say with confidence that John would agree. We were in love instantly.
George was a little stressed from all the pushing and he had to go up to the NICU but only for an hour. John went up with him while the fixed me all up. I was very anxious for him to come back down. He got to stay with us for the rest of the night. My mom and sister were there during the last part of my labor and they got to see him. My dad and stepmom arrived shortly afterward. John's parents, his sister and our brother-in-law arrived the next day. George had a lot of visitors on Friday. There were lots of people excited to meet him.
We went home Saturday afternoon. We have had some problems with nursing but we went to see the lactation consultant this morning and she helped us so much. I am so glad that the hospital offered that service. We are having a great time being mommy and daddy. He is an awesome little man.
And now for what everyone really wants to see (awesome video made by John, man that guy is awesome):
